Empirical Finance LLC Buys 445 Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV)

Empirical Finance LLC grew its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,541 shares of the airline’s stock after purchasing an additional 445 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $609,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in LUV. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its position in Southwest Airlines by 1.8% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 87,362 shares of the airline’s stock worth $2,589,000 after acquiring an additional 1,527 shares in the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. increased its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 13.8% during the 3rd quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 5,190 shares of the airline’s stock worth $154,000 after purchasing an additional 631 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 57,976 shares of the airline’s stock worth $1,718,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Airlines by 69.8% in the 3rd quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 24,680 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $731,000 after purchasing an additional 10,147 shares during the period. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in Southwest Airlines in the 3rd quarter valued at about $537,000. Institutional investors own 80.82% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Airlines Stock Up 0.6 %

LUV stock opened at $32.60 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $19.55 billion, a PE ratio of -465.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.62 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52 week low of $23.58 and a 52 week high of $35.18. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.47.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The airline reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.77 billion. Southwest Airlines had a negative net margin of 0.06% and a positive return on equity of 4.56%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 0.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on LUV shares. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Southwest Airlines from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Southwest Airlines from $19.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $29.00 price objective (down from $32.00) on shares of Southwest Airlines in a report on Friday, July 26th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Southwest Airlines from $28.25 to $31.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Southwest Airlines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.78.

Insider Activity

In other Southwest Airlines news, major shareholder Elliott Investment Management sold 1,203,920 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total value of $35,912,933.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 59,912,580 shares in the company, valued at $1,787,192,261.40. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Rakesh Gangwal acquired 643,788 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $29.98 per share, for a total transaction of $19,300,764.24. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 3,606,311 shares in the company, valued at $108,117,203.78. This represents a 21.73 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Airlines Company Profile

Southwest Airlines Co operates as a passenger airline company that provides scheduled air transportation services in the United States and near-international markets. As of December 31, 2023, the company operated a total fleet of 817 Boeing 737 aircraft; and served 121 destinations in 42 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as ten near-international countries, including Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Belize, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos.